Don Brutzman
Code UW/Br, Naval Postgraduate School
Monterey California 93943-5000 USA
831.656.2149 office, 831.656.3679 fax
brutzman@nps.navy.mil

http://web.nps.navy.mil/~brutzman/dissertation/

Dissertation Abstract. A critical bottleneck exists in Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) design and development. It is tremendously difficult to observe, communicate with and test underwater robots, because they operate in a remote and hazardous environment where physical dynamics and sensing modalities are counterintuitive.

An underwater virtual world can comprehensively model all salient functional characteristics of the real world in real time. This virtual world is designed from the perspective of the robot, enabling realistic AUV evaluation and testing in the laboratory. 3D real-time graphics are our window into that virtual world. Visualization of robot interactions within a virtual world permits sophisticated analyses of robot performance that are otherwise unavailable. Sonar visualization permits researchers to accurately "look over the robot's shoulder" or even "see through the robot's eyes" to intuitively understand sensor-environment interactions.

Distribution of underwater virtual world components enables scalability and real-time response. The IEEE Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) protocol is used for compatible live interaction with other virtual worlds. Network access allows individuals remote access. This is demonstrated via Multicast Backbone (MBone) collaboration with others and World-Wide Web (WWW) access to pertinent archived images, papers, datasets, software, sound clips, text and any other computer-storable media.

This project presents the frontier of 3D real-time graphics for underwater robotics, ocean exploration, sonar visualization and worldwide scientific collaboration.

Portable Document Format (.pdf) Distribution

• Dissertation Complete document.

• Chapter 1. Cover, Abstract, Acknowledgements, Table of Contents, Introduction.
• Chapter 2a b c d. Review of Related Work.
• Chapter 3. Problem Statement and Solution Overview.
• Chapter 4. NPS Autonomous Underwater Vehicle.
• Chapter 5. Three-Dimensional Real-Time Computer Graphics.
• Chapter 6. Underwater Vehicle Dynamics Model.
• Chapter 7. Globally Networked 3D Graphics and Virtual Worlds.
• Chapter 8. Sonar Modeling and Visualization.
• Chapter 9. Experimental Results.
• Chapter 10. Conclusions and Recommendations.
• Appendices. Acronyms and Video Demonstration.
• References. References and Distribution List.

Postscript (.ps) Distribution

• Chapter 1. Cover, Abstract, Acknowledgements, Table of Contents, Introduction.
• Chapter 2a b c d. Review of Related Work.
• Chapter 3. Problem Statement and Solution Overview.
• Chapter 4. NPS Autonomous Underwater Vehicle.
• Chapter 5. Three-Dimensional Real-Time Computer Graphics.
• Chapter 6. Underwater Vehicle Dynamics Model.
• Chapter 7. Globally Networked 3D Graphics and Virtual Worlds.
• Chapter 8. Sonar Modeling and Visualization.
• Chapter 9. Experimental Results.
• Chapter 10. Conclusions and Recommendations.
• Appendices. Acronyms and Video Demonstration.
• References. References and Distribution List.

Software Reference

Also available in .pdf (675KB) and .ps (4 MB) These copies of the technical report document the source code accompanying the original dissertation distribution. Note that they are not maintained up-to-date and contain program code dated December 1994 or earlier.

Software Distribution

A Installation and Execution Guide is available. Please let me know if you need help installing the virtual world. Research collaboration is welcome.

Don Brutzman (brutzman@nps.navy.mil) (8 July 2008) (official disclaimer)